Wheelchair
I use a manual wheelchair. It has a name. I call it “mine.”
A wheelchair is not an iron prison. I am not ‘confined.’ I am not ‘tragic.’ A wheelchair is not a part of me. A wheelchair is not all I will ever be.
A wheelchair is a mobility device.
A wheelchair does not indicate lack of intelligence. A wheelchair does not mean you need to talk louder at the person in it. Talking to a person in a wheelchair isn’t accomplished by speaking towards the person with them. A wheelchair does not make the person in it naturally good. It does not mean they don’t know how to swear, or that they are patient, gentle or a gift from above.
A wheelchair is a mobility device.
A wheelchair does not mean the person has a spinal cord injury. A wheelchair does not mean there was an “accident.” Just because we are in wheelchairs doesn’t mean we ‘all look alike.’ A wheelchair doesn’t make the person in it sexless. Nor does it make them sexier. A wheelchair does not mean the person using it cannot stand. A wheelchair does not mean the person using it cannot walk.
A wheelchair is a mobility device.
A person in a wheelchair is not a “poor thing.” Because a person in a wheelchair is the height of a child doesn’t mean they are a child, or child-like or like being talked to as a child. A wheelchair does not make the person want to be patted on the head. A wheelchair doesn’t make a person inspirational. A wheelchair doesn’t mean the person is to be pitied.
A wheelchair is a mobility device.
A wheelchair does not mean that the person wants to share their medical history with you. A wheelchair does not automatically make a person any more disabled or less disabled than someone else. A blue stick figure in a wheelchair is a symbol someone made that now everyone uses to mean “disabled” or “handicapped”; that doesn’t mean someone in a wheelchair is special or must park in a blue marked space. There is no “almost” in “wheelchair accessible.” Our society has put a lot of different meanings onto that blue wheelchair sign but at the end of the day....
A wheelchair is a mobility device.
Most able bodied people do not like to stand right beside a person in a wheelchair, I do not know why. Most do not like being passed by a wheelchair. A wheelchair goes faster than a person can walk going downhill. A manual wheelchair goes much, much slower than a person can walk going up an uphill. There isn’t any moral meaning to it: it is the laws of physics and gravity. A person visibly straining to push their wheelchair up a hill isn’t “brave”, “heroic” or “plucky.” They are using a mobility device.
Human legs are more efficient than a wheelchair. Wheelchairs do not go sideways, not even when it is really crowded and people won’t move out of the way. Wheelchairs will sometimes tip over, particularly if there is bad pavement or a bad curb cut. Please do not pull on limbs or yank the person who has fallen. They just fell on cement and they may be injured. They may not want help to get back into their chair. Thank you for caring, but thank you more for listening. A person in a wheelchair has just the same right to choices as anyone else. A wheelchair does not make the person using it any less of an equal person.
A wheelchair is a mobility device.
Do not sit in my wheelchair, even when I am not using it. If someone uses a wheelchair and can move their legs or a leg or part of a leg, this does not mean they are “not disabled”/‘Not a cripple.’ There is no “appropriate” speed for a wheelchair. If you want to push my wheelchair, ask me first: I don’t come up behind you, grab your hips and start pushing you around. Because I am in a wheelchair does not mean I will know another person who you know in a wheelchair. And having to use a wheelchair doesn’t mean ‘your life is over.’ The only thing you know about me when you see me using a wheelchair is that I use a wheelchair, everything else is an assumption.
A wheelchair is a mobility device.
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Comments
It was good to read this article .. can you tell me what the etiquette is with helping someone in a wheelchair? Is it simply to ask?
I’m just thinking of New Years morning, travelling on the one and only train from London Euston to Milton Keynes and getting in a carriage with a lady in a wheelchair. There was no room to sit any where and peopled cramed in like sardines where ever there was a standing space. I then saw lots of shocking behaviour from desperate people who wanted to get on that train no matter what. I saw her knocked, disregarded and her chair used as a tool to hold on to while they pulled their drunken selves onto the train. Through all that time I was amazed she didn’t say something and I did ask her is she was ok .. I wasn’t sure if she thought I was being patronising, I wasn’t but I was genuinely concerned that people didn’t see her or if they choose to ignore her which meant she was getting knocked about. Should I have done something more ?
Elizebth. That is ..... briliant My sentiments entilay.
Can i pass it on and can i can it be publised in carity and Universtiy magazins?
Mary Laver
How true is this statement. There appears to be a mistaken belief that if your physically disabled that you must also be mentally disabled. How many times i have seen people talk the person pushing the wheelchair rather than converse with the occupant.
We need to keep shouting the fact that we all possess brain cells and the ability to communicate !!!
I can relate to that! I went on Eurostar in my wheelchair recently and the staff at the St Pancras end were excellent (they even left me to get to the platform unaided, once they'd asked if I could). However on the way back in Brussels, the member of staff insisted on pushing me, saying "no, that's what I'm here for". Instead of allowing me to maneuvre myself into the lift, he lifted me up by the handles and dumped me down hard. I said "Please don't do that! It's not nice! Please ask if you want to lift me!". I tried saying that it is like personal space, and also it hurts to be dropped down.
When we got to the train, again he didn't allow me to maneuvre myself into the space, although I said "thanks, bye, I can do this" - but lifted me up and dumped me down a few times until I'd moved into the space he wanted me to occupy. Again I complained, but he just left. And then of course I maneuvred myself into the space I needed...
I can't even claim it was a cultural difference as the staff member in Brussels was Scottish!
I just think the whole article is brilliant! My daughter blogs on this site and has had ME for about 10 years so we have much experience of a wheelchair being a mobility device, and all the things you say are so true!
Natalie: I would think that starting communication would probably be best. I think you did all you could; the problem is that sometimes as a wheelie, you just know that there is going to be a cost and she might have been in "Just grit your teeth and try to ignore it" - And from your description I don't anything could have been done. It is like last week when after a Xmas party dinner, the entire party at a table (10 people) all staggered into my chair where I was having dinner with my partner at another table. Most of them found it funny intead of saying excuse me. I suppose after the first four had hit me some server could have suggested they try going ANOTHER way out just to give some other diners the excitment of their body contact. But you did ask, and you were probably as jammed as everyone else, so thanks for being aware.
Mary: Help yourself, since the ý doesn't pay, it doesn't have a binding contract and I own the copyright so please, reprint as much as you desire (can I just get author credit though - like "By Elizabeth McClung").
Spencer: Yes, yes yes! My partner wanted me to include "And the person with the person in a wheelchair may also NOT be a personal assistant OR have any medical training" - You should see the look on people's faces after they do the "Oh you are so brave to be out and about." condescending thing, when my partner says, "I don't think you've meet my partner yet, this is Dr. Elizabeth McClung" (I think announcing your Ph.D. while trying to get to the cheese dip at a party is rather odd but I think she does it because SHE is proud to be with me and it irks her that people think 'poor her, stuck with the feeble minded')
Wow - comment vortex, that took 22 minutes to accept - I guess the ý IS on disability time.
Flash: Yikes, so much for thier training for PWD's. Wheelchair dancer had a good post where she was acting "stroppy" on board the plane and they threatened to call the police and fire department to have her removed. I do wonder from your story why they thing WE are the ones with the difficulty when clearly the member of staff was the one with communication problems. I've had someone being "helpful almost break my finger by suddenly grabbing and pushing my chair, even when I was trying to brake with my hands. When will they add the button to give a small electric shock to the person moving your chair?
Mary-Ann: It was reading the blogs of people with ME/CFS that I was educated and understood how much negative pressure there can be to conform to these societal "ideas" of what people in wheelchairs SHOULD be, when, at the end of the day, it is a mobility device.
Thanks so much for this article! My brother told me more than a decade ago that his wheelchair was a mode of transportation and not a way of life. I thought he was just repressing a lot of pain, but now I finally understand what he meant. Your wheelchair is like my glasses or my mom's dentures. We all use adaptations and aids of one kind or another, whether or not we identify as disabled or not.
Thanks again.
Hello Elizabeth,
I am in Victoria, Australia and I would also like to use your post to assist in educating people without a disability. I would naturally identify you as the Author.
I am in a motorised mobility device and constantly get comments like those you highlight in this post.
I am on local & state committee's to help obtain equity for PWD's in all areas of our lives.
Hi Elizabeth
I went through your article and found your article amazing. It was a very intelligently-writted and gives food for thought. Indeed I liked reading it alot and it is no wonder that some readers wished to forward your article to others. Articles like this one can be used to good effect in creating awareness snd educating people (particularly able-bodied ones).
Keep up your good work Elizabeth. Well done :)
By the way, I wish to forward your article to my contacts as well (and of course I'll include the necessary references, particularly your name & surname and the link to the source article).
Best regards
Michael
Hi Elizabeth
I went through your article and found your article amazing. It was a very intelligently-writted and gives food for thought. Indeed I liked reading it alot and it is no wonder that some readers wished to forward your article to others. Articles like this one can be used to good effect in creating awareness snd educating people (particularly able-bodied ones).
Keep up your good work Elizabeth. Well done :)
By the way, I wish to forward your article to my contacts as well (and of course I'll include the necessary references, particularly your name & surname and the link to the source article).
Best regards
Michael
Hi Elizabeth
I went through your article and found your article amazing. It was a very intelligently-writted and gives food for thought. Indeed I liked reading it alot and it is no wonder that some readers wished to forward your article to others. Articles like this one can be used to good effect in creating awareness snd educating people (particularly able-bodied ones).
Keep up your good work Elizabeth. Well done :)
By the way, I have forwarded your article to my contacts as well (and of course I have included the necessary references, particularly your name & surname and the link to the source article).
Best regards
Michael
I call my wheelchair my wheelie bin! and it's helped me get to places I could'nt normally get to. I can walk but not far and even my family do not understand my need for my wheelie bin on times, as you say it's a mobility device and it can be fun (especially when you look people in the eyes and dare them to look at you and then give them a lovely smile and talk to them) they seem so shocked?! We are normal, just a bit of a problem with walking!
Hi Elizabeth
It's me again. Apologies for sending the same message three times cos each time I attempted to send the message it gave me an error, so I presumed that they didn't get through.
This morning I attempted again...and noticed that my previous messages went though (but too late).
In any case as I said you have really written a very praiseworthy article and keep up your good work.
Finally, I wish that one day there will be a similar article to create awareness about people with visual impairment (having a style similar to this one).
Best regards
Michael
Michael D: I have had the same problem with this rather 'erratic system' - I am glad that the article has been able to be of use, or that you think it can be of use to others.
I too would be very interested in a similar article for visual impairment (from you perhaps?). Thank you for your praise, and I will try to live up to it in future works.
Ellen Deller: Thanks, I am glad it was of some insight. To be honest, I was...er..attacking the PT's and wheelchair fitters and the doctors and in some ways the ideas of the disability community too. I mean, yes, I use my chair so much that it is like a part of me; but I need to remind myself sometimes that at the end of the day...it is a mobility device and if a better one comes along (hopefully with a jet pack), then that is what I will use.
Margaret Stevens: Please, you and any others have free use permission (I actually chose the fonting and the spacing so you can keep it as is or just chop it up as is useful to you). I am glad that this sort of attempt at articulation from times thinking in bed, or staring into space would come to a useful purpose. Totally unrelated: I just returned from a trip and I want to get a sign/bumper sticker for "There is no 'almost' in "wheelchair accessible" - I would have also like to mention that entering a resturant through where the garbage bins are stored isn't very moral boosting either (the 'accessible' door).
Maggie Lee: As you say, the concept of wheelchair=total immobility is so fixed; there was a profile on a Toronto TV interviewer and she has a spinal cord injury. But over the years she has had some improvement and can weight bear for a minute or two, and she talks about sitting at a bar, talking to the barman, then using the chair as a support, sliding off, walking a bit and getting into her wheelchair (and watching the guy's eyeballs bulge out). I use a wheelchair because it provides me with a better life with more options than one without it, not because I am in a hallmark movie - and it sounds like you are the same. There are no actually somber violin sounds when we sit or wheel in our chair (that's the movie), real life is, 'grunt', 'that BLEEB pothole!', etc
Elizabeth
It appears from your blog that you obviously have big issues about how you think others percieve you.
If you think your wheelchair is a big issue then it will become one.
I have been using a wheelchair 24/7 for just over two years and i dont even think about my wheelchair most the time. The only time i think about it is considering if maybe the wheels are to muddy to go on the carpet. I dont sit there and think that its a mobiliy device or any other kind of aid.
Maybe people look at me, i dont know and dont really care, i long ago gave up caring about what others think of me. People always look at other people so they can compare themselves to them. People always used to comment on how tall i am (which i can do nothing about) blokes inparticular look at women to see if they have big tits or a big bum, women look at blokes and comment on things like nice bum and look at other women to compare how fat they are etc. They look at eachothers clothes and shoes. I dont think they look at my wheelchair anymore than they look at other things about me.
I dont think people feel sorry for me in my chair, i definatly dont feel sorry for myself. I think i am more tranprent in my chair judging by the amount of people that walk into me because they just dont see me.
I actually get treated a lot better when i am using my chair because i go at a decient speed, when i used to shuffle round on crutches people used to tut because i wasnt going fast enough.
I think if you dont have an issue with being in a chair then you dont assume that is what everyone else is thinking about you. If other people want to sit in my chair i dont care, most my mates jump in the moment i get out, i find it very amuzing to watch their poor 'driving' skills and when it tips back they get freaked out. People always want to try something novel or different.
I get a kick out of doing mad things like sailing and canoeing and then getting back to the shore and getting out and getting back in my wheelchair and people just looking in disbelief like they cant believe i can paddle and sail but my legs dont work.
You just need to get out more and get on with your own life and not worry about what you think others may or maynot be thinking about you, life is too short and their views dont matter
annie
This is absolutely wonderful Elizabeth! How would you feel about being a contributor to my blog with this post and others?
After the terror attacks of 9/11, I was forced to wonder, how safe are high rise buildings?
In 1991, after the bombing of the World Trade Center, people spent hours evacuating the buildings, slowly moving downward in poorly-lighted, smoke-filled stairwells. In Chicago, a seemingly non-threatening fire forced people to evacuate a building, only to be trapped in stairwells where many would succumbed to smoke. In the terror attacks of 9/11, people became trapped in the towers of the World Trade Center above the impact point of the planes. Those trapped inside phoned loved ones telling them they were going to die. In moments of finally desperation, many jumped off the building to avoid the fire.
From this tragedy, I was struck with an idea which inspired me to create a high rise evacuation system. It is called . . . Frederick’s Tube.
The Frederick’s Tube is tube, 46-inches in diameter, with entry points on designated floors. The tube goes from specific floors to the ground. Carriers are inserted in the top of the tube, which evacuees then sit inside. The carrier rides a cushion of air to the ground floor where passengers are safely unloaded. This system uses no electricity and should evacuate a person approximately every 6 seconds. From a 100-story building, each carrier should reach the ground in approximately 40 seconds. The elderly and handicap can be evacuated just as easily as an able-bodied person, as opposed to the alternative of having to be carried down the stairs.
I appeal to those in the industry looking for an inexpensive way to evacuate people from a high rise building. Please take the time and go to www.highriseevacuations.com
Sincerely,
Kurt Fuhrmann
Loved this piece very much. I was wondering if I can use this in my journal? (with your permission and full credit) I can't tell you how much I resonate with it. I live in the U.S. and attend college. I have Cerebral Palsy and use a power chair full time.
I had one person come up to me, look over my chair and say, "Where can I rent one of those?" I looked at them and said, "Sorry, this one's mine. I wish I could just rent one."
Annie: I think we have clearly established my narcissist personality but ironically this piece was a collection of things that general people say and think to me and OTHER people in wheelchairs. "You just need to get out more and get on with your own life.." - I enjoy this unintended humour and will add it to what my ex-epee coach said, "What, why don't you just get up and walk, are you going to be lazy the rest of your life?" - you might want to check my previous post: /blogs/ouch/200710/im_dying_thanks_and_you.html
Student: Sure! Use the piece as you please and I will do what I can; thanks to technology, words on computer screens are one thing I still have control on making - set me to your task!
Kurt: I think you are the first product placement spam to make it through the ý ouch system - congrats!
Jessica Moore: Please help yourself, I am glad that the collection I put together about wheelchairs is able to resonate.
Annie: I think we have clearly established my narcissist personality but I guess at the end of the day: I think a wheelchair is just a mobility device. "You just need to get out more and get on with your own life�" - I enjoy this unintended humour and will add it to what my ex-epee coach said, "What, why don't you just get up and walk, are you going to be lazy the rest of your life?"
Student: Sure! Use the piece as you please and I will do what I can; thanks to technology, words on computer screens are one thing I still have control on making - set me to your task!
Kurt: I think you are the first product placement spam to make it through the ý ouch system - congrats!
Jessica Moore: Please help yourself, I am glad that the collection I put together about wheelchairs is able to resonate.
I read your article through emails! Continue to enlighten the minds of stupid people who think they are somewhat superior to people who use a wheelchair. I am involved in several groups with persons with disability and know the problems they encounter and the comments they continually hear from others and the unaccessability there is! It is true that a wheelchair is a mobility device! Keep it up and continue fightin! remember that "No one can make you feel inferior w/out your permission. Never give it!"